After years of planning and negotiations, state transportation officials have now begun work on its permanent replacement.

"It's a unique location," Leslie Haines, vice president of Parsons Transportation Group, the company that designed the new bridge, said before a meeting earlier this month on the project's progress.

About 14,000 vehicles use the bridge to cross the channel that connects Vineyard Haven Harbor to Lagoon Pond each day during the summer, according to the Martha's Vineyard Commission. The bridge carries motorists to and from Vineyard Haven, where hordes of ferry passengers disembark during the height of the island's tourism season. Even during the depths of the off-season, traffic across the bridge can be as brisk as the winter wind on the deck of an inbound ferry.

The bridge forms the final connection between two outstretched fingers of land and, when drawn up, the channel is like the space between God and Adam in Michaelangelo's fresco on the Sistine Chapel (except with a boat passing through).

The process that led to the new bridge's construction has also been relatively unique, with the local community having an ongoing say in the state project, which will cost $43.6 million including the temporary bridge and is scheduled to be complete in mid-2016.

Haines was on the Vineyard for a meeting with local officials, state Department of Transportation representatives and officials with Middlesex Corp., the construction company building the new bridge.

The collaborative effort — formalized in a committee of island and state officials — has been key to the project's success, committee chairwoman Melinda Loberg said.

Loberg, who is also president of Tisbury Waterways Inc., a nonprofit group concerned with water quality in Lagoon Pond and Lake Tashmoo on the other side of Vineyard Haven, said her organization originally became interested in the bridge project because of the potential opportunity to improve flushing in Lagoon Pond.

The drawbridge committee was formed through the Martha's Vineyard Commission, and the state joined in, albeit reluctantly at first, Loberg said.

It later became apparent that changes to the channel beneath the bridge would not affect the pond's water quality but the process of vetting questions through the committee made the planning smoother, Loberg and commission Executive Director Mark London said.

"We said we wanted to speak with one voice," London said about islanders.

Although the committee's involvement meant a lot of back and forth, it was a more effective way of ensuring the island community was onboard for the final design, London said.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Verseckes said that the state tries to work more closely with local communities in situations like the drawbridge project where the effects prompt a lot of local concern.

"It's somewhat case by case," he said. "If there's a bridge in the middle of the woods and we just need to replace it, it's unlikely anybody will care."

But on the island there clearly was concern about replacing the drawbridge, Verseckes said.

The new bascule bridge will have a low profile and walking paths on both sides that connect it to the surrounding land and waterscape. Even the barriers that stop traffic when the bridge is pulled up will lay out of view when it is down.

"We have so much beautiful scenery," Loberg said. "Why impose something into it that calls attention to itself?"

The temporary bridge was necessary because state officials didn't believe the old bridge would survive the construction of a permanent replacement.

Work in the water around the new drawbridge is on hold from Jan. 15 through May 31 because of state Division of Marine Fisheries restrictions related to the spawning and juvenile development of winter flounder. Restrictions also were intended to protect shellfish spawning and settlement, since shellfish provide food sources for adult fin fish, according to Verseckes.

But construction can continue on land during the restrictions as well as inside cofferdams — structures built in the water to create a dry area for construction. According to state and Middlesex officials at the meeting with Haines, there will be little effect on vehicle traffic during the vast majority of the project because of the temporary bridge.

While the project's design and ongoing construction has generally gone smoothly thanks to the committee's work, there have been bumps in the road.

The state took a home adjacent to the bridge by eminent domain after sometimes tense negotiations with the family that owned it.

"I'm pretty heartbroken," said Charlotte Holloman, whose family had bought the home after renting it for a month at a time.

Holloman said her daughter grew up in the home, which the family was forced to leave last year.

"They've disposed of the inside of the house," she said.

The family did receive compensation for the home from the state, but the two sides had disagreed over its value.

Currently the home is still standing with its front doorway only feet away from the temporary bridge. When the project is done, the area where the house is located will be a small park on the pond with a haul-out site for kayaks.

Holloman directed other questions to her daughter, who did not return a message seeking comment for this story.

Tisbury Harbormaster John M. Wilbur III, meanwhile, is worried about the effect of the project's timeline during a two-week period in 2015.

At the meeting with Haines and state officials Jan. 8, Wilbur said he was worried about boating access to Lagoon Pond at the time when the transition is made from the temporary bridge to the new bridge almost two years from now.

Because the channel must be straightened at the same time, which Wilbur said he had pushed for and supported, and the temporary bridge removed, there will be a period when sailboats in particular may be excluded from the pond.

"Oct.1 is too early, period," Wilbur said about the schedule for that restriction. "I guess I could live with the 15th, but the first is too early."

October is prime hurricane season, and the pond is considered a safe harbor for many sailboats, he said.

"I can't imagine that I ever accepted that as reasonable because it's not reasonable," he said.

The contractor must squeeze a lot of work in at that time and before the next set of restrictions because of winter flounder, Haines said.

"If they don't get it done by Jan. 14, then the channel is closed to June," she said about the potential delay.

It's possible the Division of Marine Fisheries would allow a two-week exemption from the flounder restrictions, as is being contemplated for an ongoing dredging project, Wilbur said.

Although he said he understands the time is needed to complete the work, Wilbur said he would do whatever he could to push back the time when access to the pond is blocked.

Despite that limited but important concern, Wilbur and Tisbury Town Administrator John Grande said they were happy with the progress on the project so far.

Because of a change in the height of the bridge from the water and the change in the channel, the bridge won't have to open as often to let boats through, Wilbur said.